


Unexpected Functions

by M_W101



Category: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Genre: Derek Reese - Freeform, F/M, Sarah Connor - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-23
Updated: 2018-05-23
Packaged: 2019-05-10 09:09:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14734101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/M_W101/pseuds/M_W101
Summary: Since the beginning, John knew there was something different about his protector “Cameron”. It wasn’t the fact that she was a female Terminator, nor the fact that she was capable of emotion and social awareness. It was something much deeper and underlying.





	Unexpected Functions

**Author's Note:**

> So I recently re-discovered my love for the Terminator franchise (excluding that piece of shit Salvation) and I finally binge watched The Sarah Connor Chronicles for the first time ever. I’ve properly become invested in this show so it majorly sucks that there’s no season 3 for me to look forward to. I absolutely adore Cameron & John or “Jameron” as I believe they’re known in the fandom and I knew I wanted to write for them. This fic is essentially a reimagining of the bed scene from 2x22. I hope it’s enjoyable for you guys! I’d definitely like to write more for Jameron and maybe something for Kyle & Sarah!

Watching John sleeping was something Cameron found herself doing all too often. There was something strangely soothing about watching his chest rise and fall as he slept. He looked so innocent and peaceful, as if John Connor was just any other human without a care in the world. For a while it was believable.

 John awoke abruptly, sensing Cameron sitting on the edge of the bed, watching him. She turned her head slightly, looking him directly in the face.

 “Don’t do that” he sighed, blinking away the drowsiness “my mom used to do that, I really hate that”

 John could see that Cameron wanted to talk to him. She had that look of sadness and desperation that had become all to familiar to him.

 “What’s going on?” he asked softly, looking into her eyes.

 “You need to understand how it works” she replied, not moving an inch.

 John was confused at Cameron’s words. Clarity and context were something she still had yet to master.

 “What?”

 Still Cameron’s attention remained unwavered.

 “This chip. This body. The software is designed to terminate humans. The hardware is designed to terminate humans. That’s our sole function”

 John hated hearing Cameron talk about herself as if she was nothing more than a machine. She was so much more and yet so much less.

 “Not you” he replied, transfixed on the movement of her lips.

 “No. Not anymore. But what was there is still there and will always be there”

 For the first time her gaze shifted, ever so slightly as she said it.

 “So down deep....” John began “you wanna kill me” he said, looking away from Cameron.

 It was almost something that John could laugh about at this stage. Skynet had tried on multiple occasions to kill him. They’d sent terminator after terminator to kill him and both his previous T-800 protector and Cameron had saved him from each and every one. Ironically both had also tried to kill him at some stage of the process.

 “No. Skynet wants to kill you”

 John looked up again, surprised by Cameron’s response. He pushed himself into a sitting position on the bed and took a heavy breath, considering his next words.

 “So.....what do you want?” he asked.

 John felt Cameron’s hand connect with his own, her fingers interlocking with his own. Rather than feeling cold and hard, they felt soft and warm like any other. For a moment, they just gazed at each other. Staring deep into the other’s eyes.

 “You” Cameron confessed.

 John couldn’t pretend he hadn’t spent many a sleepless night thinking about Cameron, about her body, her touch and how he saw her as something more than a protector. How could this ever work though? Underneath the beautiful complexion was a killer cyborg built by the very people trying to kill him to ensure their uprising. Yet John still found himself falling for her and falling hard. But what would Sarah say if she found out? Or Derek?

 “....we can’t do this” John groaned, wanting nothing less than the opposite.

 Cameron barely blinked “why?”

 John closed his eyes. He wanted nothing more than to be with Cameron despite having a million valid reasons not to be and the solid case of her not technically being a human being but his heart was set. He was already too far gone for her. He still had to try and convince himself that it wasn’t a good idea.

 “Because.....you’re a terminator for godsake.....a killer cyborg robot from the future! How are we supposed to be together? A human and a cyborg?” he inquired.

 Cameron shuffled slightly closer to him.

 “Why can’t you see me like any other person? Is it impossible for you to look at me and not see the terminator?”

 In a way, it was. Every time he looked at Cameron and imagined some kind of life with her, it was hard not to see what she really was inside. John didn’t want to recognise what lay beneath and sometimes it was easy to forget, just for a moment.

 “I mean you’ve been acting more like a normal human than ever lately but it doesn’t change the fact that you’re not....you’re still....that” John responded.

 Cameron said nothing for a moment and continued to stroke the back of John’s hand with her thumb. Eventually she found the words that she wanted to say.

 “I feel closer to human now than I’ve ever felt, John. Don’t I deserve the chance to experience a human existence?”

 All John could do was was look at her and try to imagine that underneath her complexion was just blood, tissue and bone instead of metal, mechanics and wiring.

 “Cameron....whatever this is.....it’s probably I don’t know...an error in your programming or something” he tried to reason “it’s not you”

 Cameron pulled her hand away and moved herself off the bed, walking over to the window in the room.

 “My programming goes as far as the mission. Anything other than the exact guidelines of that are my own thoughts and desires. After you reinserted my chip, nothing changed. My original Skynet mission parameters remained the same. Terminate John Connor. I could’ve gone through with my mission. I still could”

 John lifted his head from within his hands, stunned at Cameron’s confession.

 “....then why haven’t you? How are you able to resist it?”

 Cameron turned to face him, her expression being one of sadness and longing.

 “There’s an override. It’s embedded in our programming. It’s only supposed to be used as a last resort in the interest of preservation. I have more control over it than I was ever supposed to. I used it the night you reactivated me”

 John had long wondered why she hadn’t wanted to kill him after re-inserting the chip, now he had the answer he’d been looking for. There was still a lot to understand about the way Cameron “worked”.

 “Why?” John demanded.

 Cameron shifted her gaze to the floor briefly before returning it to John.

 “Because I love you. I think you love me too” she remarked.

 She was right. John did love her and had done for a while. Even he himself knew that what had happened with Riley had been a defence mechanism to try and take his mind off Cameron but it hadn’t worked and it had ended up getting Riley killed.

 “I do....” John confessed. It felt like a relief to finally say it. Now he didn’t have to pretend anymore.

 Cameron returned to sitting on the bed and shuffled close to John. John reciprocated and took Cameron’s face in his hand. He leaned in to kiss her, finally. Her lips tasted of strawberries, a result of the lipstick she’d bought from the store when they’d been in the city.

 Cameron continued to kiss him back before John finally pulled away to regain his breath.

 “Was that okay?” Cameron inquired.

 John almost laughed. Even after finally confessing their feelings for each other and being intimate, she still asked the basic questions.

 “It was....fine. Perfect. It was okay for you right?” he exclaimed.

 Cameron nodded “it was nice”

 “If we’re going to do this” John began “we can’t tell my mom. She’ll freak the hell out and she’s got enough going on right now. Can we just keep it between us? For now?”

 She’d already experienced the wrath of Sarah Connor and knew that John was right. She wouldn’t understand their feelings for each other and Derek was bound to have a few choice words about it. To them, she was just another terminator that was here to protect John. She didn’t protect John because it was her mission. Not anymore. Maybe feeling love had somehow corrupted her programming, allowed her to experience an existence that was as close to human as she could live.

 Of course it didn’t really make a difference. Skynet would continue to send mercenary after mercenary to kill John and she would continue to protect him not because she had to, but because she wanted to. It was the closest thing to free will.

 “I think that would be the right choice given how Sarah and Derek feel about me” Cameron admitted.

 Except they both knew deep down that they couldn’t keep it a secret for long. Sarah knew how to read people and she wasn’t stupid. Eventually she would find out. They could only hope that neither her or Derek wouldn’t try and destroy this newly found love.


End file.
